Man caught alone in HOV poses odd legal argument

Updated 10:09 am, Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Photo: Carlos Antonio Rios, Chronicle File

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Carpooling has its obvious advantages. Some cities have converted HOV lanes to high occupancy-toll, or HOT, lanes. Houston could be the next to take that step, which would involve allowing single-occupant vehicles on three clogged freeways to use HOV lanes for a fee.

Carpooling has its obvious advantages. Some cities have converted HOV lanes to high occupancy-toll, or HOT, lanes. Houston could be the next to take that step, which would involve allowing single-occupant

A California man's unique argument over a traffic ticket may pose questions about whether corporations should be legally defined as people, according to The Pacific Sun.

Jonathan Frieman was issued a $478 ticket for driving in an HOV lane without a second passenger. However, Frieman plans to argue in court today that corporate incorporation papers in his car should constitute his second passenger, The Pacific Sun reported.

"Corporations are imaginary entities, and we've let them run wild," Frieman said in a news release. "Their original intent 200 years ago at the dawn of our nation was to serve human beings. So I'm wrestling back that power by making their personhood serve me."

Frieman said in the release that he plans to argue the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Houston attorney Robert Eutsler, who has not reviewed the case, said the argument was imaginative, but it was unlikely to be successful.

"He is trying to game the system instead of following the rules," Eutsler said. "You have to give him credit for coming up with the argument, but it doesn't pass the laugh test."

Corporate personhood has been a heated debate over the past two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that corporations have the same rights as individual people in the realm of financing political campaigns.